[nathanbedford]

How is it that NATO is not a tremendous part of the problem, here? It seems that US efforts to involve the Ukraine in NATO, in the past, were half-hearted at best, if not downright disingenuous. They contributed to this situation.

The problem is NATO's duplicity with Ukraine plays both ways. If we as a leader of NATO encouraged Ukraine to seek NATO membership knowing that Russia would react, do we not owe Ukraine a moral duty to defend Ukraine against Russia's reaction?

Even more, if we promised Ukraine in writing that we would protect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for Ukraine transferring its nuclear weapons, do we not owe Ukraine the duty of keeping our word? Do we not damage our power to deter and our power to enlist allies when we betray our promises?

These issues cut both ways. If America was duplicitous or unfaithful why does that relieve us of moral responsibility?

[dforest]

The American people owe Ukraine nothing.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

I agree with all you just posted. I do not mean to imply that a blaming of NATO absolves the US of responsibility. Perhaps I do not see it correctly, but I view the US as the major director and certainly the deep pockets of NATO.

I have not been able to make sense of how NATO activity and control in the US is folded into the DOD or State Department, but I’ve seen that the expansion of NATO is controlled by the State Department. It seems to me that our Federal Swamp and the NATO Swamp may be one and the same. The US involvement in setting up this mess seems unavoidable.

I would love to be able to tell who we are morally obligated to.